Posted on October 30, 2017
August’s Drewry global container port throughput index reached an all-time high of 126.8 points.
The August figure, the highest since inception of the index in January 2012, was nearly 7 points up on August 2016 (120.0 points) and more than 11 points up on the August 2015 level of around 116 points.
The global index climbed 0.5% from July’s figure of 126.2.
5% global growth
The month-on-month index figures for China and Europe dropped 0.5% in August – totalling 136.1 (down from 136.8) and 114.2 (down from 114.7) respectively, but show more than 5% annual increase.
All regions showed at least 5% annual growth in August 2017. However, 2016 was a weak comparison in many cases, said Drewry.
It added that Africa – with 117.4 points in August, up from 102.7 in August 2016 (107.2 in July 2017) – is showing double digit annual growth. It pointed out, however, that the sample size is small.
US climbing
North America showed the highest annual change of 7.0%, with 137.7 points, up from 128.7 in August 2016.
Its monthly change of 2.8% is equal to Latin America, which jumped from 110.4 points in July 2017 to 113.5 in August.
Latin America saw the third highest annual change of 6.1%, with 107.0 points in August 2016.
The Drewry Container Port Throughput Indices are a series of volume growth/decline indices based on monthly throughput data for a sample of over 220 ports worldwide, representing over 75% of global volumes.
The base point for the indices is January 2012 = 100.
Source: portstrategy
